Benjamin Renner is back with a new animated film, if you guys don't know the guy, he was the man behind the 2014 academy award nominated animated film "Ernest and Celestine", which was charming, funny, touching and beautifully animated, if you haven't seen it then do check it out, it's really good, but now a second animated film by Renner based on his comic strip "Big Bad Fox" is here and I am a bit late to the movie, since it did came out in August in my country, so I got the DVD not long ago and I watched it at home and...... i thought it was brilliant!, so let's talk about it.
It's about a play with three stories by anthropomorphic animals, one is about a Duck, Pig and a Rabbit trying to deliver a Baby since the Stork has broken his wing, the second one is about a Fox and a wolf trying to steal some chickens and eat them all, along with some chicks as well, so then the fox steals three eggs, the chicks would be dinner but then they think the Fox is their mother, would then form a bond and start to like each other, but the Wolf is losing his patience and just wants to eat the chicks, so the Fox has to try and hide the chicks from him, the third and last story is about Duck, Rabbit and Pork again but this time try to save Christmas but delivering all the presents to the nice children, so... you think something like this wouldn't work with it's simplistic premise and predicable plot with childish jokes, right?.... no actually, you see the simplicity is the charm and the comedy is witty, whimsical and clever, if you combine those two together, then you get something enjoyable, all three stories come together and they are all told very well, granted it maybe predicable but that's the least of your problems, don't expect a big budget film that will blow everyone away and be a big hit, it's just it's own thing, not trying to make a franchise but just wants to have fun and be a good movie and it certainly does that very well.
The animation has improved from Ernest and Celestine as much as I love the animation in that movie, all the characters have great designs, they are all identifiable, the backgrounds are gorgeous, the energy and movements of the characters are great, it's also good to see hand drawn animation in film once again, I know it's Disney or anything but at least we are seeing more of these then often, same with Stop-Motion, we need more art styles like this in animation, we need more films like this then 3-D animation, look I love 3-D animation and all but I do miss the good old days of stop-Motion and hand drawn, but none the less, the animation shows that Renner and his team are capable of making something look amazing!.
The character are charming and lots of fun, my favourites would have to be Fox, Wolf, Pork, Rabbit and Duck, Fox maybe clumsy but he's sweet and hilarious, Wolf is very menacing, Duck and Rabbit are so enjoyable, Pork gets some good laughs, as for the rest like the Dog, the Chickens, the three Chicks and even Santa Clause, well they have there fair share of good screentime and of course great humour and enjoyable, but they aren't in the film much so there's not much, also the voice acting is terrific, Giles New, Bill Bailey, Matthew Goode, Justin Edwards are many more are all great and sounds like they are having fun with their roles, the characters may not be much, but thanks to the great cast and fun and charming characters, they will give you s good laugh.
So yeah..., it may not be a well known animated film (expect for France) but it is a really enjoyable film, with it's charming simplistic story, clever humour, amazing animation, fun characters and wonderful voice acting along with a great score, Big Bad Fox and Other Tails is a perfect family film, I highly recommend this movie, if you want to watch something with the children, the family or have a family movie night, this will be for them, however I can't decide if this movie or Ernest and Celestine is better then the other, but I like them both equally, so if you can, find the English dub of the movie, I know it originally came from France, but there is a UK Dub, so try and find it on DVD if you can, it's really worth a watch!.
I'm going to give Big Bad Fox and Other Tails a easy 10/10.
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